


Walk On the Dark Side

by DaisyChainz



Series: Huxloween 2019 [8]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Canon Compliant, Creepy, Gen, Pre-Star Wars: The Force Awakens, mentions of torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-11
Updated: 2019-10-11
Packaged: 2020-10-28 23:43:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20787005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DaisyChainz/pseuds/DaisyChainz
Summary: The Finalizer happens upon an abandoned space station. It was a research vessel. Or perhaps a prison barge. Maybe a slave ship? Whatever it was, it was nothing good.And Kylo knows exactly what happened on board.





	Walk On the Dark Side

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Huxloween!!
> 
> Day 11: Sentient Objects or Locations

A ship as large as the Finalizer went in and out of lightspeed with barely a tremor. But this time, everyone on the bridge braced themselves as they dropped out of hyperspeed, unexpectedly. 

"Report." Hux snapped, straightening up and returning his hands to clenching behind his back. 

"No indication as to why we left hyperspace, sir. The engineers are searching for a technical cause."

"Scan the surrounding areas. Pinpoint our location and search for potential hostiles, or other exterior causes." He looked up at the viewport and paused, then added, "and identify That."

The pit crew was in a frenzy of search and communication, and Hux and several of his officers were staring out the viewfinder when Kylo Ren made his appearance. 

"What is the meaning of stopping like this?" Ren growled though his vocoder. "I thought I had made the importance of reaching the Ibonni sector clear to you."

Hux didn't bother to turn to him. "We don't know why we were pulled out of lightspeed yet, but for the moment I'm assuming it has something to do with that."

"You don't know why we stopped? So much for control of your own ship, General. I . . ." He came up short beside Hux. 

Hux looked at him sharply. "Let's not forget, it's your ship as well. Commander."

But his sarcasm was lost. Ren stood stock still, body tense. It was Hux's only indication of his reaction. 

"General Hux," Thanisson called from the pit, "whatever that is, it's not showing on our scanners. It's electronically cloaked, sir."

"Then visually check for markings and identifiers. It's going to be in our systems somewhere."

Ren took a step forward, body strung tight like a bow. "Crseih Station."

Hux snapped his head in his direction. "What?"

"Crseih Station. It will be in your database. Possibly as Asylum Station."

Hux nodded to Thanisson, who dutifully searched. After a few moments he called up. "Yes sir. Crseih Station, commissioned before the beginning of the Clone Wars, it was a gift from the Emperor Palpatine to Procurator of Justice . . ."

"Hethrir." Ren cut him off. 

Hux stepped up beside him. "How do you know this station?"

Ignoring him Ren swung around towards Thannison. "The Galactic Republic moved this station to orbit Pakuuni. How is it here, now?"

Thanisson kept his eyes on his screen and typed madly. "Pakuuni is the last recorded location, Commander Ren. There are no records indicating it was released, sold or otherwise relocated."

Ren made a frustrated sound and turned abruptly back to the view. 

Hux repeated himself. "Ren. How do you know this station? Is it capable of pulling a ship this size out of lightspeed?"

Ren stood silently for a moment, clenching his hands. The creaking leather tweaked on Hux's nerves. "I'm going aboard."

"We haven't completed our scans. We don't know if it's maintained it's integrity, much less if there are hostiles aboard."

"There aren't." Ren growled, then turned on Hux, pressing in. Hux held his ground, his jaw tightening. "I'm preparing to board. You had better complete those scans quickly." Then he swung away, heavy boots carrying him off the bridge. 

Hux glared after him. "Complete the safety scans and prepare a boarding party. I shall be joining Commander Ren."

*** **

It was nothing like the ports and stations Hux had been on before. It wasn't just the empty silence; it was how it was laid out. The purpose for each space seemed different from the usual docking bays and vendor areas.

The station was still fully functional, though partially powered down. Ren led the way down the shuttle gangway, followed by a platoon of white armored stormtroopers, and then the General. He consulted his datapad as he got the lay of direction. 

"What was the purpose of this station?" He spoke to Thanisson over the comm. It was cold, and the hair on his body stood on end. The chill pressed in on him, all the way through even his heavy uniform and overcoat.

"It's purpose is not clear sir. It seems to have served as a research station. But also a prison ship? Perhaps it was conscripted during the war."

A long shiver ran through Hux's body as he considered the possibility that the station was both, at the same time. 

"Still no signs of life?"

"Not larger life forms. Pests, mostly. And there are gardens, large ones from the looks of it. Probably enough to produce at least a portion of the breathable air."

"Very good. Bring up the internal surveillance system, do a more thorough check of the station. See if we can figure out what they were really doing all the way out here. Have the techs slice into the whole system and download whatever they can find. It's a research vessel, I want to know if they found anything interesting."

"Yes General."

Ren had already disappeared down the nearest hallway, and the stormtroopers were starting to fan out in pairs. Their job was to locate and remove any potential threats. Hux left them to it and followed Ren. He seemed to have answers; perhaps Hux could wheedle a few out of him. 

The long hallway sloped down slightly. At the end there was a faint green light. Hux followed it and found himself in one of the gardens. 

The automated systems had kept the plants watered, fed and supplied with light. But with no sentient or droid gardeners the plants had overrun the space. Roots pushed up under the walkway, cracking the flooring and creating loops to catch feet on. Hux had to push his way through the overhanging growth, unable to see from one plant to the next. 

The further he got into the station the less he was able to ignore the growing sense of of dread in his gut. He shook himself, not wanting to allow being in a creepy abandoned space to bother him. But the feeling clung and only grew stronger. He kept glancing back, thinking he could hear whispers in the rustling leaves. 

He found Ren at the exit to the garden. He quickly suppressed the twinge of relief at not being alone--even if the other person was Ren. Another long hallway led away, with no indication of where it went. Ren's back was ramrod straight, tension rolling through his body. He seemed to be staring up the hallway, but Hux couldn't see at what. It made him even more uneasy. 

"Ren." He got no response. "Ren!"

Slowly Ren's faceplate turned towards him. "Where are you going? How do you know of this place?"

His own reflection stared back. He waited quietly, knowing pushing for answers would only achieve a headache. Ren turned away again and started up the hall. 

Hux followed just behind. 

His comm beeped and Thanisson was in his ear again. "General, they've begun downloading the research. There is a great deal, although it's well organized. From what they've looked at already it would appear that the research involved a good deal of torture. What's not clear yet is what they were hoping to achieve."

The realization that Hux's first suspicion was correct did not diminish the creeping dread, the adrenaline inducing feeling of something coming for him. Resisting the urge to look over his shoulder again Hux responded, "keep at it. Let me know if anything concrete come to light."

"Yes sir."

Ren's vocoder startled him out of his own head. "They won't understand his findings. Hethrir's goal was to serve the Emporer by becoming a true Sith warrior. After the fall of Palpatine he became obsessed with rebuilding the Empire with himself at the head."

"He wished to rule as an Emporer?"

"He wished to rule as a God. His thirst for the darkness was unquenchable. The things he did here were to turn himself as far into the Dark Side as humanly possible. Beyond humanly possible."

They reached the top of the hall and looked into the next room. It was just another abandoned space, nothing special to look at. But the band around Hux's stomach tightened further, nausea and fear beginning to fill his chest.

Hux continued to follow Ren from room to room, up and down more dark hallways. He recieved occasional updates from the stormtroopers as they cleared one area after another. The only issue they had was a rodent dropping from the ceiling onto one of the troopers. Thanisson commed to update Hux. The voices in his ear grounded him and made him feel less separated, alone. Isolated. 

"The status of the research station was changed to slave ship sometime around the uprising against the Emporer. As near as they can tell the slave trade was both useful for finding subjects, and a way to finance the research. The station has a hyperdrive, so being mobile would have been a good way to keep the research undercover."

"Excellent work. Comm me with any more findings."

"Yes General."

Ren finally stopped in front of a closed doorway. He stood in front of it for a long time, not moving or speaking. Hux waited patiently, trying to ignore the thought that they were slowly being surrounded by the souls of the people that had been tortured, experimented on. 

The idea was ridiculous, but Hux couldn't shake the image. He glanced around, unable to stop himself. 

Finally Ren held up a hand. He stood like that for a while, fingers slowly curling together. Finally he twisted his wrist and Hux heard a series of popping sounds inside the door itself. The aged mechanism sighed and creaked as the door slid open.

Inside was a lavishly appointed office, no doubt belonging to Hethrir himself. Both men stepped reluctantly inside. 

Immediately they both covered their ears, the assault sudden and viciously loud. Hux dropped to one knee, trying to control his rising panic.

Screams and moans of suffering and dying filled their every thought. Hux felt as though the sound was actually in his head, not something he was hearing. He sank forward, his skull seemingly too full to hold up, his consciousness slipping away under the onslaught of not only the sound, but the emotional pain that was assaulting him.

Hux could feel his mouth open and his chest contracting, but if he was screaming he couldn't hear himself. Suddenly he felt his own weight leave the floor, and the noise in his head quieted back down to a tortured hum. 

Breathing hard he opened his eyes to see Ren's face, his actual face not his mask, hovering over him. He was more pale than Hux had ever seen him, his beauty marks and dark hair standing out against his complexion. 

He finally slumped over next to Hux and he found they were against the wall, the office across the hallway. The door was securely shut again. 

Hux wanted to sit up but found he didn't have the strength. His chest felt full and difficult to force air into, his brain felt wobbly. The ghosts felt further away for a moment. 

When he could finally draw breath to speak he asked in a hoarse whisper "what happened?"

Ren banged the back of his head against the wall. Once. Twice. He stared at the door as he answered. "Did you notice the floor and walls?"

Hux coughed. "All I noticed was that the room seemed lighter than the rest. That was all I had time for."

"Hethrir had exclusive rights to harvest and sell body wood. It was how he made his original fortune. He lined his study, floor and walls with it."

"I've heard of body wood. It was quite a luxury during the Imperial reign. It was one of the many lost extravagances the old officers would lament during our exile. My father thought them foolish. Is that important?"

Ren gave a long exhale. "Body wood was only grown one place, and was a luxury because it was alive, even after it was cut down."

"Alive?" He paused, not certain he wanted an answer. "How?"

"It holds a form of sentience, it understands and remembers. It's said that it cries when cut down." He shivered visibly. "That's why it was so coveted by Imperials. It was yet another living thing they could trample under their boots."

Hux huffed and managed to pull himself to a sitting position, leaning against the wall next to Ren. "But what just happened? Is it Force sensitive as well?"

Ren shook his head. "Not at all. But Hethrir imbued the entire station with Dark Side energies. It was said they orbited a crystallizing star, that may have warped the Force enough, with what he was doing to affect the wood. It already had absorbed the suffering of itself and those around it. Because of all that we can feel it now too."

"There is nothing to be gained here. We should go."

Ren didn't respond. Instead he crawled the few feet across the hall, kneeling and reaching for the door again. 

"Ren!" 

He continued to ignore him as the door squealed open. Hux steeled himself but the screams grew no louder. He did not approach Ren or the office.

Ren reached out a hand to the wooden floor of the study, but stopped short of touching it. Curling his fingers into a tight fist he pulled his hand back. 

"It's true, Hethrir performed experiments on his prisoners--many of them his own people. He used it to reach deeply into the Dark Side and enhance his powers, control and understanding. But I don't feel the power he amassed, or how it would be to turn that far into the darkness." Ren hung his head, a position Hux had been fighting almost his whole occupancy. "All I feel is the suffering of his victims."

"It's all around us, it's hard not to be affected by it." Hux shuddered as another cold chill ran down his spine. He felt as though someone had just screamed in his ear. Again. 

"Compassion is the path to the light. I should feel empowered by the suffering of others. And it wasn't just any suffering. It was suffering that was specifically done to bring Hethrir to the darkness."

"Is that why we are here Ren? Did Snoke send us for this?"

Ren turned enough for Hux to see his profile. "Perhaps. This was not my mission, but it would be like him." He moved his hand again and the door ground shut. He sighed deeply and turned to slump back against the it, closing his eyes. 

"I can feel it. I can feel the Dark Side energy. He told the wood that he was responsible for it being cut down. Cut down and brought to serve him."

Hux found just enough energy to shiver again, then he laid still, looking across the hallway at Ren. 

"Snoke taught me about Hethrir. He thought the parallels would inspire and motivate me." His dark eyes opened and locked with Hux's. "My Grandfather was his Master. He enslaved and killed his own people, destroyed his own home planet, tortured, lost himself, all to reach his ultimate power within the Dark Side." He banged his head again. "I've failed my mission."

For the first time, Hux realized he had a window into Ren's actual life. Not the life he spent stomping around the Finalizer destroying equipment and terrorizing his staff. But Ren's life. What it truly meant when Snoke said ridiculous things like 'give yourself over to the Dark Side'. He shivered as the creeping feeling started to over-take him again. His ears still rang from the screams that were never in them. 

Hux watched his face. "It's only a failed mission if you ignore the lesson Snoke wanted to show you. Focus on your failure, or focus on what you can do to become more like Hethrir." Ren opened his eyes but they were not focused on Hux. It occurred to him that Ren could actually see what he could only hear and feel. He quickly continued. "Perhaps he is just showing showing you the path. Hethrir spent years dedicating his life to becoming . . . This."

Finally Ren seemed to see him again. A faint smile played on his lips. "I can take the lesson, although I doubt that will save me from my Master's displeasure when I return." He made to stand. 

"Then shall we attempt to be successful with the mission he actually did give you?" Hux pushed himself to his feet, his hope that they would soon be leaving motivating him beyond his actual strength. His shaking limbs reminded him of the long walk back. 

"Collect your troopers, General. We have a mission to complete."

They pushed themselves to walk more quickly than they had come in. "What will we do with the station? I've had my research team downloading all the files. Surely not everything they collected was mystical."

Ren shot Hux an annoyed look. His mask was tucked under his arm. "Let it sit. We know where it is if we need it again. Somehow I don't think anyone is going to bother it."

Hux commed the Stormtroopers to return to the shuttle. 

As they left the landing bay the small ship shuddered and paused, as if something was holding it back. Hux's heart froze, and seemed not to beat again until they were in free space. 

He was glad to leave the station, glad they weren't taking it with them. He wanted to be as far away as he could from those ghosts.

**Author's Note:**

> The story is canon, but the history behind the station is not. 
> 
> Thank you to @heir_of_breath7 for posting the body wood info. And thanks to Wookiepedia for supplying the rest!!


End file.
